The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has its traditions: From the epic sunsets and ever-present Ferris wheel, to a landscape of art installations and a high demand for shade, some things can be counted on every year.

While unofficial, the annual event’s longest-running (and perhaps most important) tradition has been reuniting seminal acts that have otherwise been on hiatus.

When 1999’s inaugural concert lost a million dollars and the 2000 edition was canceled, festival organizer Paul Tollett turned to a recently reunited Jane’s Addiction to headline in 2001.

Since, the inclusion of newly reformed acts has been one of Coachella’s most highly anticipated features. Bands like the Pixies, Portishead, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Rage Against the Machine all have chosen the Empire Polo Fields for return to the stage.

But the hip-hop crew that played the Mojave Tent at the very first Coachella is back. And they couldn’t be happier about it.

“It’s awesome,” MacFadden said from a recent band rehearsal. “It speaks volumes that the band hasn’t performed in almost seven years, and we’re still relevant enough to get a main slot at Coachella. If that doesn’t tell you that we should keep feeding this, I don’t know what does.”

Potsic agrees.

“We’re really excited,” he said. “Everything just fell into place perfectly. But it’s going to be a trip. I think it’s going be goose-bump city once that first note drops.”

Although all the members of the group continued their individual careers, Jurassic 5 has continually been approached about getting back together. While members have communicated over the years, and even discussed a reunion before, it never materialized. That is, until Coachella came calling.

“The offers never really stopped,” Potsic said. “But the Coachella one was proper, and it’s right in our backyard. We joined forces in L.A. and are based here. It just made sense, and the timing was right. I think everyone’s ready to put down the solo hat for a bit. We just hope the people are responsive to what we’re up to.”

MacFadden, who left the group two years before the official split, is as ready as anyone for an end to the hiatus.

“The timeliness of this thing is perfect,” he said. “We have a unique situation. Everyone has had a chance to do their own thing. And that just makes the J5 brand stronger. We spent so much time in our lives building it, and then it just stopped. It really deserves to live on.”

And it will. No new music is yet in the works, but Jurassic 5 will be mounting a full-scale tour once the current hoopla of the reunion has subsided.

“We’re only really talking about Coachella at this point,” Potsic said. “We want to give them that respect for putting us out there for the first one. But there will be plenty of other shows.”

After so much time away, there have been surprisingly few changes to the group. While a phrase here or a scratch there has been missed in practice, the two DJs agree that everyone has fallen back into their roles quite easily. They also made sure to emphasize that fans need not worry about the music sounding different. Other than a few minor tweaks, the collective is picking up exactly where they left off.

“The songs are only being modified frequency-wise,” MacFadden said. “Things are just louder and have more bass now. So for us to play a song like ‘Jayou,’ which was recorded on a tape player at my mom’s house, it needs to be festival-ready. But it’s not like we’re playing dubstep now. It’ll be original recipe. It’s just J5 2.0.”

The excitement and opportunity of their upcoming appearance is not lost on the group. They are prepared and ready to make good on the chance they’ve been given. But they’re also proceeding with caution. They’ve been here before and refuse to make the same mistakes.

“This thing’s been going on for almost 20 years,” MacFadden said. “It’s something I’m proud of, and I want to see how it feels in another 20. We want this and we’re not forcing anything. We’re doing it right.”

Potsic is of the same opinion.

“We’re taking this thing one step at a time,” he said. “We went from 0 to 100 in about 10 seconds when we were asked to play this. So we want to come with the kind of show that makes people think, yet stays true to our original roots and why people gravitated to us in the first place. We’re just going to put our tour shoes on right now, and get our swords nice and sharp for phase 2 of our career.”